Bucks County Prosecutors Will Seek Death Penalty For Grace Packer's Death

Prosecutors in Bucks County will seek the death penalty against the man and woman they say murdered then dismembered a 14-year-old girl last July.

The announcement was made Friday in court, when Jacob Sullivan, 44, waived his formal arraignment on charges he killed and raped his girlfriend's daughter, Grace Packer.

His girlfriend, Sara Packer, is also charged with her adopted daughter's murder. Prosecutors have already signaled they'll seek the death penalty against her, according to multiple reports.

The pair was charged in January, six months after authorities say they beat, raped and poisoned the girl before strangling her in Richland Township over an 18-hour period.

Packer and Sullivan then preserved the girl’s corpse for weeks in cat litter before dismembering and dumping it in a remote area of north central Pennsylvania, according to the Bucks County District Attorney. Grace had been reported missing last July in Montgomery County.

Authorities say the pair in December attempted to carry out a suicide pact by overdosing on prescription drugs.

Sullivan is charged with homicide, rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, unlawful restraint, kidnapping, possessing instruments of crime, endangering the welfare of a child, abuse of corpse, simple assault, tampering with physical evidence, and corresponding conspiracy charges.

Packer is charged with homicide, kidnapping, unlawful restraint, possessing instruments of crime, endangering the welfare of a child, abuse of corpse, simple assault, tampering with physical evidence, and conspiracy charges.

Just three people have been executed in Pennsylvania since the death penalty was re-instituted in 1976, according to NBC10.

The trial is scheduled for next year.